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To test an accutemp unit, I open door, put thumb over vacuum hole, upper left side, turn on unit should pull down within 10 sec. to 15-20 "Hg. if it is working. also do a cold water test to unit, empty out water, fill with cold water, set to fast cook, should get up to 20" within a few minutes.
Call accu-temp and get their book it is free, short book about 20 pages but makes it easy to fix unit. accu-temp people are very good in the tech support group, so they can help you too. Phone number is on side of unit, so I never keep it anywhere.
AS unit heats up the cold water you will see the vacuum drop from the high setting down to a lower setting depending on the desired temp in unit.
A cool trick to try on these units is to try to open door on it with just 1/2" of vacuum inside it, go ahead try it, let us know how it went.

[Edited by ndfrozen on 12-09-2006 at 11:06 PM]

So you didn't ask, what you though was a stupid question. Now how, are you going to tell the boss about your stupid screw up?

NOpe

-5 is not enought, needs to be 15-18 hg. Sounds like a failing vacuum pump, or, I'm probably way to late, but there's a pressure swith on the left hand side the are prone to failure, they leak by cracking due to temp i would assume. Also, a common failure I've found, also with the pressure switch, is the complaint will be that it used to cook in 2 hours, now takes 6, or 8, or longer. A simple frickin pressure switch that caused me hours of work. Good luck with those things. The more you work on it, the more you learn.

-5 is not enought, needs to be 15-18 hg. Sounds like a failing vacuum pump, or, I'm probably way to late, but there's a pressure swith on the left hand side the are prone to failure, they leak by cracking due to temp i would assume. Also, a common failure I've found, also with the pressure switch, is the complaint will be that it used to cook in 2 hours, now takes 6, or 8, or longer. A simple frickin pressure switch that caused me hours of work. Good luck with those things. The more you work on it, the more you learn.

-5 is not a lot, but unit will cook slower like the post says, most of my customers don't seem to care about this so I don't push it. BTW if you replace the pressure switch also order the brass fittings and tubing that it is hooked up to it also, will save you time on call and frustion. This stuff gets brittle and tends to break when you touch it. Don't let the parts lady say you can get it at a hardware store (you can, but whats your time worth) order all parts from MFG. and save yourself a headache. Any parts left over tuck inside unit for future work as they will get used.

So you didn't ask, what you though was a stupid question. Now how, are you going to tell the boss about your stupid screw up?

These units will pull into a vac. when cold then drop off to near zero when at temp. Depending on your altitude the temp may never hit 212F. The vac. pump is there to remove air which is a non-condensable and also to lower the pressure in the cabinet in order to get the water to boil much quicker. The press. switch is the first thing you should chk. Also I've seen the element clamping studs break and the elements bow out away from the bottom of the unit. The older units use the blue tubing which also cracks, so chk. that as well. if the pump pulls slow and the tubing checks out ok, then replace the head or the whole pump.

These units will pull into a vac. when cold then drop off to near zero when at temp. Depending on your altitude the temp may never hit 212F. The vac. pump is there to remove air which is a non-condensable and also to lower the pressure in the cabinet in order to get the water to boil much quicker. The press. switch is the first thing you should chk. Also I've seen the element clamping studs break and the elements bow out away from the bottom of the unit. The older units use the blue tubing which also cracks, so chk. that as well. if the pump pulls slow and the tubing checks out ok, then replace the head or the whole pump.

If the the clamping studs break off you can send unit back into mfg. for repair. not sure of cost, this is also covered under warranty. if you have access to metal shop could have them weld them on with a stud welder gun.

So you didn't ask, what you though was a stupid question. Now how, are you going to tell the boss about your stupid screw up?